Is There a (Nonprofit) Doctor in the House?

Dust off the leather bag, pack your stethoscope – or your laptop and creative team – and call in the PR doctor, we have nonprofits to assist!

That’s the sentiment expressed in a recent survey conducted by Catalyst Consultants Collaborative, a Miami-based nonprofit organizational think tank, and a collection of Miami-Dade County not-for-profits, as data reveals that for all the good nonprofits do in their local communities, much more can be done to effectively transmit and communicate their message. Maybe this seems a bit obvious, but concerns like this fall directly in the purview of public relations, like our company. Time to call in the troops.

The survey, released in October 2011and conducted in July 2011, collected data from a representative sample of 223 South Florida nonprofit organizations. The surveyed nonprofits were founded from as early as the 1930s right through to the 2000s with annual revenues ranging from less than $250,000 to $3 million. Areas served included education, science and technology, to environmental protection and civil rights, to advocacy, and religion, among others. Clearly, Catalyst they covered all bases when more than half of the nonprofits surveyed said that failing to get their message out was a top concern.

Yet in something of a contradiction, the survey also found that nearly 70% percent of surveyed nonprofits reported an increase in the demand for their services over the last three years and over a third, (37%) saw significant services demand hikes. Common sense would dictate that the busier your organization is, the more people would know of the good work you do. Right?

Wrong. It should be, but it’s not always the case. The good news is that, nonprofits have an array of tools at their disposal that can help them to improve their visibility and messaging – tools that can be further enhanced and implemented by a working with companied who understand the needs of nonprofits, not just Public relations. Recognizing this need, the Nonprofit Brand Institute, a source of news and services for the nonprofit industry, recently compiled a “visibility getting started list” that may steer nonprofits in the right visibility direction:

• What’s in a name? Plenty. It may seem obvious but visibility starts – and continues – with your nonprofit’s name. Choose a simple, catchy name that unambiguously says what you do. Successful nonprofits have a tendency to outgrow their original ambitions and their name is no longer relevant to their cause or only expresses part of what they do. Does that sound familiar?
• Go from laundry list to vision: Nonprofits are usually excellent at explaining what they do and how they do it in various written and digital mediums, but are less skillful at inspiring everyday people to join their cause. Trained writers, hired internally or through your PR partner, are an excellent solution.
• Technology, technology, technology: With 40% of Americans owning smartphones, checking their email and accessing the mobile web, a mobile web presence, either in app form or website is critical. Social media, be it Facebook or Twitter can also go a long way to get your message out, especially to younger adult demographics.
• Learn the ABCs of QR Codes: QR codes, like the older barcodes, are scannable icons that allow smartphones to directly access your site. The easier it is for someone to access your site, the greater the chances a visitor will become a donor –and a free promoter of your cause to other potential donors.

So while improving a nonprofit’s visibility may be a little more complex than taking “two Aspirin and calling the doctor in the morning,” and it may involve reaching out to a professional communications team, embracing these simple and effective tips are a great way to start.

Singing The Blues For Pink

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of Thinkink, originally appeared on Marketing Daily on 10/25/11.

For a color whose name doesn't even get top billing on the visible spectrum of light, pink has certainly developed potent staying power. From the Pink Panther to pink Cadillacs, and everything in between, this dainty mixture of red and white has also come to symbolize a less benign issue: the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-a-year-fight against breast cancer - the third deadliest cancer in America today and No. 2 killer of women.

Are you surprised I didn't say it was the No. 1 killer of women and the second deadliest cancer in the United States? You can thank the power of marketing for shifting those perspectives.

Not only has breast cancer taken more than 240,000 lives since 2005, according to Cancer.org, it has also commandeered an entire month through powerful -- some would even say extreme, marketing influence. For the past 25 years, October’s ghosts and goblins have had to share the stage with the specter of breast cancer and its increasingly corporate-like kissing cousins – Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the inexorably linked Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

While no one can deny the impressive global awareness and funding these organizations have brought to the breast cancer cause – Susan G. Komen alone raised about $420 million in 2010 – am I the only one who thinks that all the merchandising: the pink ribbons, the pink-clad NFL teams, the Bank of America pink checking accounts, the pink armbands, pink lunchboxes, pink Kitchen Aid food processors and whatever else has been Pink'd for October is diluting both the issue at hand and, in reality, siphoning more money toward profits than for research for an actual cure, and skewing public attention away from other serious cancers -- or other causes, period?

When was the last time you paid attention to cervical cancer, or colorectal cancer? Why don’t any NLF teams wear ribbons to support Male Breast Cancer – something that kills, on average, 450 men per year?

Pinkwashing: Where Does All the Money Go?

In 2002, Breast Cancer Action launched a side project called “Think Before You Pink,” whose goal was to raise awareness over the types of companies that chose to go pink, and “encourages consumers to ask critical questions about pink-ribbon promotions.” Doing battle with so-called “pinkwashing,” their motto is “raise a stink.” Here, too, donations go to cancer research. The organization asks consumers to do some research before a pink product is purchased, for example:

• How much money from your purchase actually goes toward breast cancer? Does it say so plainly on the box or packaging?
• Does the company you’re purchasing from have a cap on the amount it sends in donations regardless of the number of pink-related sales?
• Are funds being raised through direct purchase, or is a clever marketing scheme disguising the fact that you need to purchase additional merchandise from the company in order to make a donation?
• How, specifically, is your money being spent?

I was reminded of the need to research when I received an email from Etsy (a site for artisanal wares), promoting all things pink but without any visible endorsements. Showcased vendors were promoting their wares with descriptions such as, “This apron knot dress is a great way to show support for all those around us touched by Breast Cancer and a fashionable and fun way to show your support for the fight for a cure.”

I don’t know about you but I don’t that think fun and breast cancer belong in the same sentence, and it’s precisely this sort of overreach that at first confuses consumers (who exactly am I giving to?), then moves onto cause fatigue (not another pink promotion!!), and finally cause alienation (what a sell-out; I want nothing to do with that brand).

Have Sponsorship Dollars, Will Go Pink

Susan G’s overreach, too, seems to have gotten the organization into several snafus, the most notable when it partnered with Kentucky Fried Chicken to sell pink buckets of chicken to franchise operators, where 50 cents of every purchase went to the “For the Cure” campaign. Seriously, KFC?

Needless to say, the public and media backlash was acute, and the partnership short-lived. Is a pinkwashed KFC really going to unclog all those red blood vessels? Fried chicken is a well-known contributor to obesity, critics said, and obesity is also linked to cancer. How can a campaign be genuine if, on one hand, money goes to a worthy cause and, on the other hand, unnecessarily shines the spotlight on a fast food chain driving its sales and profits?

The truth is, it can’t.

Then there was the perfume brouhaha where independent testing of the chemicals in Susan G.'s Promise Me perfume revealed that some of them might be linked to cancer. For its part, the foundation released a statement saying that the levels of questionable ingredients fell “well within the guidelines of the International Fragrance Association,” but that out of an abundance of caution, the perfume’s formula was being tweaked.

Of course, the plot thickens when you consider the driver behind this story was cancer charity rival Breast Cancer Action. Is it possible their constant nitpicking is also part of their own marketing campaign called "my charity is better than/more deserving than yours?"

For consumers, it becomes very tiresome and, if that example raises questions of agenda bias on Breast Cancer Action’s part, this one won’t. Earlier this year, Stephen Colbert took Susan G. Komen to the court of public opinion when he teased the group’s million-dollar-plus effort to squash nonprofits that allegedly appropriated the “For the Cure” slogan. Who can blame these smaller nonprofits wanting to cash in on what's become a multimillion-dollar marketing machine.

To Komen’s credit, the organization makes no bones about its size, its influence or the way it does business.

“It’s a democratization of a disease,” said Komen CEO Nancy G. Brinker, in a recent New York Timesarticle about the pinking of professional football. “It’s drilling down into the deepest pockets of America. …America is built on consumerism. To say we shouldn’t use it to solve the social ills that confront us doesn’t make sense to me.”

Raising awareness is all well and good, and Americans have huge hearts and pocketbooks when it comes to giving, but why must that awareness come with a pair of New Balance sneakers or a Kitchen Aid blender?

The truth is that it shouldn’t. Since when did we start needing to get something in order to give?

Let’s Reconsider Our Disease Consumerism

Pink’s 2011 October reign is almost complete. Soon we’ll be on to November, which is officially recognized as Lung Cancer Awareness Month. You remember lung cancer, don’t you, the No. 1 American cancer killer that took nearly a million lives in fours years? It’s got a color and a ribbon, too, though it shares its pearl-colored badge of honor with multiple sclerosis. Only its marketing budget can't compete with pink.

As we close out the final months of 2011, why don't we leave the color spectrum and our "disease consumerism" aside? Perhaps my singing the blues over pink may convince others to think about the effect that one cause's marketing efforts have had on so many others.

From breast to colorectal to pancreatic and prostate to ovarian, esophageal and all the insidious rest -- cancer kills indiscriminately. Choose whichever form of runaway cell growth you want and re-focus on the color of money instead: donate all that you can directly to treatment and screening sources of these other unadvertised cancers – having done your research first, of course.

Trust me. That blender – pink or otherwise – can wait. Because all cancers and life-threatening diseases are equal-opportunity killers, even if the marketing budgets of the nonprofits that support them aren't.

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of Thinkink, originally appeared on Marketing Daily on 10/25/11.

Gauging Nonprofits Mobile Marketing App-etite

“The National Breast Cancer Foundation uses in-app ads to drive awareness,”….“UN Foundation leverages mobile to drive philanthropy,”….“National Geographic drives consumer engagement, revenues via mobile.”

The above headlines represent a recent snapshot of the goings on when it comes to nonprofits and their effective use of mobile marketing. From literally all corners of the nonprofit world, it seems, charities – and their supporters – are signing in, turning on and hitting “send.” So universal has the arena of mobile campaigns become – the US cell phone penetration rate was 91 percent in 2010 – that charities, especially smaller ones, can sometimes overlook the expenses and pitfalls when launching a text or app-driven donations initiative.

When launching a mobile campaign –regardless of size— nonprofits should take some simple advice offered by DIOSA Communications, a company that specializes in social media and web technology for nonprofits. Here are some tips for text, mobile website, text-to-give, and Smartphone Apps drives:

• Start small: In order to avoid some of the financial risks Harmon highlights. A donations campaign doesn’t have to be months long. Start with a few weeks. That way, even if your mobile campaign ends in the red, your nonprofit isn’t in deep red. Add a “mobile” subscriber field to your mailing list pitch on your website. That way, organization fans can “opt-in” (a formal consent to receive messages from your organization via text) setting the groundwork for future mobile events.
• Mix Up Your Message: At first glance, that piece of advice may cause a double take. Don’t worry. It simply means not to bore your supporters. Mix up your messages and send different ones to different sub groups.
• Less is More: Keep your text messages to no more than 140-160 characters and don’t bombard people’s inboxes at odd hours, particularly at night. Be particularly aware of different time zones. It’s always 5 p.m. somewhere, but it’s always 2 a.m. somewhere else.
• Apps in Caps: If going the Smartphone route, make certain your app is featured front and center on your web page and blog, complete with engaging screen shots and a “download here” button.
• Show the Money: Few things aggravate nonprofit supporters more than if a part of the technology behind your mobile campaign doesn’t work. Make sure the “donate button” inside the mobile webpage or app actually goes through.

Of course, to some extent, size does matter. Jacelyn Harmon, in her Marketing for Nonprofits blog, rightly points out some of those issues. From setup fees to monthly maintenance costs, to the two to three-month time it takes for cell phone companies to hand over donation earnings, smaller nonprofits with fewer resources, could find themselves in difficult financial straits. But none of that should deter those efforts. Nonprofits can go from fledgling to famous in a very short amount of time.

While no doubt true to some extent, it also sounds suspiciously like a catch-22. If mobile campaigns are all about reaching and connecting with more people, why must you already be in the nonprofit Major League in order to take advantage of it? In a perfect world, size –or lack of size—shouldn’t be a determinant in launching a successful mobile campaign.

In the last year and a half, texting and mobile donations campaigns have really come into their own. Many attribute that coming of age to the Haiti earthquake where in just days after the disaster, the American Red Cross received some $22 million via text. By January 21, 2010 –nine days after the crisis – text donations had surged to $30 million, representing 14 percent of all donations made to the charity.

This March, a combined human-natural disaster shocked the world as Japan was sent reeling from a catastrophic earthquake-tsunami duo followed by a partial melt down of its Fukushima nuclear power plant. Once again mobile donations proved an effective giving medium. In just three days the Red Cross raised $1 million through text donations.

And just two months later, the residents of Joplin, Missouri, like their Japanese and Haitian counterparts, were thankful for mobile donations’ growing reach. On May 22, a powerful tornado ripped through the city. Two days later Verizon Wireless had already launched a mobile campaign. Unlike previous examples, Verizon customers were not limited to a single charity. Instead people could send their $10 donations to a number of organizations including: the Salvation Army, United Way, and Convoy of Hope, among others.

Whether your nonprofit is a burgeoning behemoth like The Red Cross, or just starting out on its own smaller campaign, mobile initiatives –in their various formats, can be the way forward.

When it comes to your organization’s mobile and texting app-etite, just don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Star Struck or Struck Out? The Pros and Cons of Celebrities and Nonprofits

For nonprofits looking to expand their charitable giving, a little star power can go a long way. But if not chosen carefully, the wrong celebrity – or the wrong cause – can have you and your organization seeing stars.

There’s been a lot of talk over whether or not an association with celebrities –from Justin Bieber to President Obama – help or hurt charitable organizations and their ability to raise money. On one hand, a celebrity’s star-status all but guarantees that their legions of fans will at least become familiar with your organization’s cause. Perhaps, with the proper mix of traditional and social media marketing, familiarity can grow into fundability? That seems to be the presumed thinking, at least.

Too often, however, nonprofits and celebrities find themselves in less-than-ideal marriages where a host of problems arise ranging from the cost of retaining a superstar. Think Oprah’s and Rosie O’Donnell’s charities, whose overhead costs were eating into donations. Or the ethics of accepting donations from a star like Mel Gibson whose light continues to dim following repeated alcohol-fueled anti-Semitic rants and rumors of domestic violence. Last summer Gibson reportedly gave $25,000 to a battered women’s shelter in Boston. While the organization ultimately accepted the donation, the shelter’s director said it was unlikely the board would accept another gift from Gibson any time soon. At least the “guilt money” was put to good use.

Overpriced and overexposed celebrities aside, earlier this summer Mashable.com, in its own look at the power and pitfalls of celebrities and nonprofits, praised teen idol Justin Bieber and his work with Pencils of Promise, an organization that builds schools and increases educational opportunities in the developing world. Well known for his millions of tween-tweeting followers, Bieber directed his fans to begin raising money in their schools to help bring educational equipment and tools to those regions. The school that raised the most money would win a visit from the Biebs himself. The bottom line, Bieber’s interest in the cause is genuine and that’s exactly what donors are looking for. Founded in 2008 by longtime Bieber friend Adam Braun, (his brother is Bieber’s manager) the pair envisioned their “Schools 4 all” campaign while rooming together on a trip to Africa.

Pencils of Promise also hasn’t oversold their mascot – a valuable lesson for any nonprofit. A click on Pencil’s homepage shows no immediate Bieber blast. In fact, I even had to re-Google the terms: “Bieber” and “Pencils of Promise” to confirm that he was really onboard. He is. In 2010 the charity raised $300,000 in donated goods and services.

Thankfully for nonprofits, social media savvy Bieber is not alone.

Beyond Bieber, President Barack Obama has gotten involved with The “It Gets Better Project,” founded in 2010 to help LGBT teens reach adulthood knowing they’re not alone in their personal identity struggles. The project gained notoriety when the President delivered a 3-minute video blog post from the White House website, discussing the tragedy of several teens who had taken their own lives. Also posted on YouTube, the video has been seen by some 1.5 million people.

It Gets Better has also recruited celebrities like Collin Farrell, Ellen DeGeneres, Sarah Silverman, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and even the quasi-celeb staffs of Facebook, The Gap, and Pixar to post web videos with the nonprofit’s main message: It does get better. Better than that, thousands of non-celebrities have been inspired to post their own unique messages and stories with the goal of helping other teens. If you thought the president’s video view count was impressive consider this: It Gets Better videos – some of which link to The Trevor Project, a related outreach nonprofit that works to prevent LGBT suicide – have been seen by some 30 million people.

The bottom line: For a campaign and their celebrity pairing to be a success the celebrity needs to:

• Genuinely care about the particular cause
• Physically attend events
• Not oversell or over market the nonprofit in question; the cause is the real star
• Articulate their passions without charging their parent charities an arm and a leg for their presence

And finally, make certain the cause you are promoting matches your celebrity. Like the case of Mel Gibson, mismatching the celebrity and the cause can appear at best disingenuous and at worst, financially disastrous.

Early fall is an ideal time for nonprofits to begin organizing their celebrity-hitched campaigns and causes. The holiday season is often nonprofit’s busiest time of year, with donations and sponsors peaking during the week between Christmas and New Years.

So with barely eight weeks until Black Friday – the season’s unofficial kickoff – the time to prepare is now.

Ready, set, celebrity, GO!

Has Social Media Come of Age for Nonprofits?

For nonprofits that have yet to log on to the social media bandwagon, try this Twitter search term: #get cracking.

Spring 2011 will probably go down as the moment when social media – that catch-all phrase that includes the almost-antique email right through the latest tweet – came of age. Surprisingly, its maturing didn’t occur at its birthplace, the United States, but rather thousands of miles away in the Middle East where a highly educated, globally aware, tech-savvy, and often jobless set of young adults in several countries relied on social media to stay connected to each other and vent over their governments’ failings and lack of opportunity.

Impressed by the flourishing of communication and the impact it was having on Middle Eastern nations journalists began calling it the Arab Spring – a rebirth of liberalism and tolerance in countries not known for embracing such tenets. Think of it as the Millenial generation’s Tiananem Square. (Where this current revolution ends up is still anyone’s guess)

It’s this sense of coming of age that should have all nonprofits readily embracing today’s rapidly maturing social media landscape. But recent data suggests that a lot of nonprofits haven’t gotten the message – at least not entirely. On one hand, a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research study reports that 97 percent of nonprofits are currently using some form of social media, be it Facebook, blogs or Twitter posts. But on the other hand, nonprofit marketing consultant Jeremy Smith in his recent blog post for Social Media Optimization, says the opposite, referring to the imperfect union between social media and nonprofits as “the missed opportunity of the century.”

In a very real sense social media was what seeded the Arab Spring. As a powerful communication tool for social activists looking for ways to connect with large numbers of people – without the need to print fliers – sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and individual blogs have proven their worth: millions of disenfranchised Arab youth joined digital hands and largely in peace, overthrew, or profoundly upset the ruling order of several authoritarian regimes.

Why?

Social media is too often used as if it were a traditional media technology with single messages being sent from a specific nonprofit and delivered en masse to a waiting audience. In short, there’s more to Facebook than simply “friending” someone or clicking “like” on what they write.

“We find that many of our nonprofit clients won’t engage fully in social media because; well, frankly they don’t know where to start and social media is all a bit overwhelming to the average nonprofit leader,” he writes.

Smith is not alone. A recent survey we conducted at The ThinkTank yielded similar findings. Lack of knowledge within the organization, followed by lack of resources were the top concerns for nonprofits, and the reasons for not integrating social media into their communications strategies.

The Web has grown up: Remember that the web has matured from being a static digital billboard into a multi-channel conversation – a consumer-customer relationship gigabytes more interactive than even a few years ago. Donors, data suggests, no longer seek a one-size-fits all message delivered from on high, but rather a message tailored specifically to them.There are a slew of commonsense tips out there to help nonprofits modernize their use of social media.

Here’s just a sampling from Jeremiah Owyang and Ekaterina Walter, two social media gurus, interviewed by Mashable earlier this summer.

• Work With What You Got: Sales and marketing employees may not at first know the ins and outs of Facebook or Twitter, but they have plenty of experience interacting with supporters via more traditional methods, email and the telephone. These skills are easily adaptable to social media once they get the hang of it. (Which leads naturally into the next bullet point)
• Seed Your Own Spring: Nonprofits should foster an environment conducive to learning about social media, even requiring social media training sessions or creating an internal social media newsletter. Joining the Social Media Business Council or the Word of Mouth Marketing Association well help your nonprofit join the conversation of other companies using social media, learning about what strategies work and don’t work.
• Trust Your Staff: Avoid social media consultants as they’re often too costly and do a poor job disseminating information throughout the company, delivering only to higher ups. But…..
• Don’t Fear Hiring: Once you’ve looked internally to fill social media talent, sometimes bringing on board someone with a specific social media skill set can help.

And finally, “Feeding the beast:” The expression that connotes the constant need to satisfy the web’s information appetite needs to be fed a good diet. In other words, don’t over post and make certain what you’re posting is relevant.

OK. So you’ve reorganized your social media business strategy. Now what? As the nonprofit executive or the person tasked with implementing a social media initiative, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. What does my organization want to get out of this initative, followed by what does my organization NEED to get out of this initiative?

2. Can we go it alone, or do we need external resources to at least develop a social media roadmap?

3. What does that roadmap look like 6 months, 12 months and 2 years from now?

4. How do we link our social media strategy to our giving strategy?

5. Will we remain committed to this? Social media is for life, not just for a few "likes."

Not only is social media for life, but its outlets are forever growing. While Facebook and Twitter are today’s social media buzz words, who’s to say something newer and better may not be right around the corner?

For instance, Google+, which had its public launch last week, is an excellent social media service that offers new ways to get people in on the conversation – whatever that may be. The new service uses “circles” to keep people connected. Like the real life “circles of people” you interact with, digital circles can be friends, family, school alumni, work colleagues and many more. Rather than having a one-size-fits-all Facebook homepage describing who you are, each Google+ circle can offer a tailored message to specific groups, that way the conversation stays relevant to that group. In other words, Google+ helps to reduce the background noise and sensory over-stimulation that sites like Facebook are sometimes guilty of creating. The more social media outlets connect and link back to each other, the better chances nonprofits will have creating an online critical mass of supporters, volunteers and ideally, donors.

If it all still seems just a little bit daunting, take a page from the

nonprofit, charity: water. Founded in 2004 with the mission of bringing clean drinking water to people in developing nations, the company literally came of age during the Facebook Generation and today relies heavily on its social media presence. In one example, the company showcases its spinoff donation site where volunteers can create their own fundraising campaigns and collect donations. In 18 months donors can see GPS images and photos of the area they aided. Similar out-of-the-box ideas have helped charity: water’s financials more than stay afloat. In 2009, its number of unique donors jumped to 34,163 from 17,220 the year before, a 98 percent increase and donations reached $5.4 million, up from $4.3 million in the same time

frame.

But just when you thought social media was only for today’s youth, older nonprofits like the 130-year-old Red Cross are offering new online surprises. In addition to sites like Twitter and Facebook, the Red Cross, relying on the adage that a picture really is worth a thousand words, also provides a link to pictures posted on Flickr – the photo sharing website, which averages some 20 million unique visitors per month. Click on The Red Cross’s Flickr page now and you’ll see the latest images from the upstate New York flood from earlier this month. The images are personal: mailboxes with traces of mud on them - a sign of just how high the flood waters rose; a waterlogged pink teddy bear sitting on its side discarded next to a garbage can. Images like these stir emotions, and hopefully, inspire visitors to help make a difference in whatever way they can.

Social media business platforms and examples of using the new technology effectively are just the beginnings. As the nonprofit industry moves deeper into the social media revolution it’s imperative that charitable organizations not only embrace the tools of the new technology, but also use them in ways that are most effective.

Cause Marketing: Coming Of Age

At the still-young age of 35, cause marketing has matured into an important component of the business and nonprofit relationship. What started off as an experiment in 1976 (Cause marketing’s unofficial birth date) with a partnership between Marriott and March of Dimes has evolved over several decades to become a $1.7 billion life-support machine for nonprofits of all missions and sizes. Businesses seek out nonprofit organizations to support their CSR programs, while consumers say they increasingly care about the causes the companies they buy from support.

A win-win?

Yet of 96% of respondents in a new survey (conducted by communications company MSLGROUP) who say they identify with two or three causes, be it cancer prevention or fighting African hunger, or anything in between, only a little over one third of those individuals end up buying from companies linked to those issues.

That equation doesn’t stack up, so what’s going on?

Getting into bed with the right partner

Let’s start by looking at the relationship: It is absolutely critical for both entities to forge the right relationship, not just any relationship. In an extreme example for instance, imagine the public reaction if the American Cancer Society were found to be working alongside Big Tobacco to fight, let’s say, lung and esophageal cancer – two deadly forms of the disease strongly linked to cigarettes and other nicotine products? It would be a disaster for sure.

While a scenario like this is quite unlikely, many lower-level faux pas happen regularly –think Kentucky Fried Chicken and its partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure – leading to consumer skepticism and wariness over the legitimate altruism of profit-non-profit

partnerships. Just type the phrase “cause marketing fraud” into a Google search and you end up with 3.4 million hits. Feeling lucky? Try the phrase: “cause marketing bad decisions” and the hits jump to 27 million.

Wow, talk about a strategically bad decision.

Altruism goes beyond the marketing, it’s about “heartshare”

Beyond just doing your homework, a recent post on Selfishgiving.com offers another often-ignored tip: appeal to hearts, not heads. Statistics are great, the theory goes, but at the end of the day, trumping your emotional card may be the best way to win over consumer support. One in 10 women age 70 and over may develop cervical cancer, according to a new study, but if it’s your relative or loved one who is sick, the stats can go right out the window. Personalizing and individualizing your cause evokes empathy from a consumer.

These common sense tips can go a long way to ensure that cause marketing’s historic success will not be overshadowed by public skepticism or recent case-by-case blunders.

It’s hard enough in today’s business and giving climate without getting in to bed with the wrong partner.

Local Women’s Nonprofit Dress for Success Miami Welcomes Dyan Cannon at Lunch With A Legend Event On September 24, 2011

Hollywood’s golden age returns to Miami, as Dress for Success Miami welcomes actress and filmmaker Dyan Cannon to the Lunch With A Legend Event at Gotham Steak, Fontainebleau Hotel on September 24, 2011, at 11:30am. Dyan will meet with fans and present attendees with a signed copy of her new book Dear Cary, a narrative that “tells the story of her topsy-turvy relationship with Hollywood legend Cary Grant.”

While the event may focus on the glamour of Hollywood, its purpose is to raise funds for Dress for Success Miami, a nonprofit organization that empowers at-risk women with professional training and clothing to aid in securing employment.

Dress for Success Miami, which has been helping Miami's disadvantaged women since 1994, is dedicated to improving the lives of these women by helping them become economically self-sufficient and thrive in work and in life.

While known for providing business attire to women, Dress for Success Miami focuses on teaching lifelong skills - recognizing that finding work is only one step in a woman's journey towards economic independence. Remaining employed and building a rewarding career are essential if a woman is to become and stay self-sufficient. Dress for Success Miami has provided services to more than 30,000 women in Miami-Dade County.

“We are excited to welcome Dyan to Miami and honored that she has chosen to support our initiatives at Dress for Success Miami while promoting her book,” says Sonia Jacobson, Founder and Executive Director of Dress for Success Miami.

Tickets are available for the luncheon for $95.00. The lunch event gives fans an intimate experience with the actress and an opportunity to learn more about the Hollywood romance of Dyan and Cary while supporting a worthy cause. Exclusive sponsor of the event is Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

To learn more about the Lunch with A Legend event, or to purchase VIP tickets, please visit www.dfsmiami.org. For more information about Dress for Success Miami, to schedule an interview or media attendance please contact Vanessa Horwell at vanessa@thinkinkpr.com or Amanda Williams at awilliams@thinkinkpr.com or (305) 749 -5342 ext. 238.

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About Dress for Success WorldWide

Dress for Success is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Since starting operations in 1997, Dress for Success has expanded to more than 110 cities in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the UK and the West Indies. To date, Dress for Success has helped more than 600,000 women work toward self-sufficiency. Dress for Success Miami is the local affiliate and is a part of Suited For Success.

10 Years Later: A Look At The Impact of 9/11 On Nonprofits And Giving

As most of the country spent yesterday, September 11, remembering and reflecting on the day of immense tragedy that took place 10 years ago, we also recounted that day, and how its events changed the course of our lives, businesses, outlook and, well, the world.

If you think about it, the period of 2001 to 2011 could go down in history as the “decade of disasters.”

Beginning with 9/11, threats of WMD, two (many will argue unnecessary) wars, a deep and still lingering recession bookended with a spate of natural disasters both at home and in every corner of the globe, and not least an extremely noxious political climate that threatens to divide the country: It's hardly surprising that society's capacity to empathize and to give often to charitable causes has diminished.

It's The Economy Stupid

Of course, it's important to remember the first victims of the “disaster decade,” even if a myriad of other events have shared the spotlight since, but a still-weak economy remains a sewer-sized drain on America's almost empty wallets and has undoubtedly affected the bottom line of every nonprofit organization.

Data released last year (the most recent figures we have available) revealed that charitable giving dropped by a hefty 11 percent compared to 2009. At that time, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in a Harris Interactive poll said they would be giving less than they were 12 months ago.

Worse still, the number of respondents who said they would be giving nothing as of last September doubled to 12 percent.

In the year since that report, the private sector has added a million new jobs (1.6 million from September '10 to August '11; 1.7 million from August '10 to August '11 - both figures seasonally adjusted from US Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics).

That may sound encouraging, but when you consider that at the height of the 2008 recession, American payrolls were contracting by some 800,000 jobs per month, it’s clear there is a very long way to go - in terms of job creation and rebuilding a society of Americans who have the capacity to give.

Today, some 14 million of our friends, families, and strangers remain out of work and the jobless predicament remains dire.

Perhaps we should look close to home and at our own neighbors to reignite our sense of empathy? Perhaps we should re-start our giving mindset by helping our fellow Americans - those 14 million who are jobless and in many cases homeless. Their lives, after all, could have been ours. Perhaps 9/11 should be renamed Our National Day of Service, where Americans help fellow Americans - in any way they can.

Because charity begins right at home - around the corner, up the stairs, or across the street. Perhaps then we can start to look outward again and start helping those organizations that rely on us to support their worthwhile causes and those in need.

Join us on I will to make your commitment to helping others in any way you can.

Mobile Giving and The Nonprofit

By: Vanessa Horwell

2011 is the “Year of the Mobile,” and it's conceivable that 2010 was the former reigning champ. Smartphones were predicted to beat PC sales in 2011; instead, they surpassed sales in 2010. Apps are more advanced than ever, and as anyone knows who's held a smartphone, they cover all of life's little details—now including charitable giving.

Connecting with Donors and Supporters

With over 80% of people using mobile phones in the U.S., targeting mobile phone users to increase donations is a viable maneuver in the nonprofit world. Phones are nearly tethered to their owners, and according to Smart Online Inc.'s A Mobile World, smartphones users are more likely to check their emails via phone. If apps are considered too advanced or too costly for a certain NPO, continued email efforts with mobile phone optimization allows potential donors to view company updates and calls for collection. With 72% of respondents stating that they checked their email more often on their phones, it's a smart first step.

If more than 50% of smartphone users are primarily checking their emails on their phones, it's a safe bet that they're using the same mobile to access social networking sites. 63% of respondents to A Mobile World's survey said that they use their smartphone at least as frequently as their computer for social networking sites, and it's predicted that the number of individuals who prefer mobile apps over websites will only increase.

Using Mobile Marketing for Engagement

Mobile marketing for any NPO is dependent on how each plans to interact with donors. When donors' needs are addressed in app development, it becomes easier to create mobile apps and mobile-friendly communication. In the case of early-stage iPhone app Tap-n-Give, founder Tonia Zampieri revealed that audience needs were initially quite basic: donating to participating nonprofits and sharing their favorites with others. As the app evolved, Zampieri developed a branding experience for nonprofits that included downloadable wallpapers for involved users.

As will be the case with all app development, it became necessary to fine-tune the app as user feedback returned. According to the Tap-n-Give Story (May 2011) Tampieri's app sold for .99, with a significant portion going to back to nonprofits, but charging a fee still slowed adoption. The iPhone-specific availability also decreased use. Tampieri identified technical issues and also worked to keep up with developments in the field (such as QR codes), noting that marketing efforts cannot fall by the wayside despite the fast-paced nature of app development. Even though she claims Tap-n-Give “wasn't the huge success I'd hoped for in terms of the support it brought to those involved,” Tampieri added “[apps] can not only be a phenomenal branding tool, but also an entirely new way to capture engaged supporters who spend a large amount of time on their mobile device.”

Expectations for Mobile Donations

It's unsurprising that few people have donated via mobile app when so few of these apps exist. However, there is forward momentum. Few NPOs have mobile apps for the public, but individuals have used their phones to support causes by signing petitions, accessing a charity's website and donating, supporting nonprofits, and sending texts to donate. Interest is there, and with strategic app development, NPOs can make smartphone and tablet donation options work for them.

The first step? Specifying where a nonprofit stands in order to connect with donors and supporters, and targeting the public through increased mobile-friendly presence.

Where does your NPO stand when it comes to mobile giving? Do you have a mobile strategy in place? We would love to hear from you!

Changing Lives with Inspiration, Hope: The Stories of Two Modern-Day Heroes

By Katie Norwood

The ThinkTank has always been the kind to root for the underdog – and having worked with nonprofit organizations for numerous years, we’ve seen our fair share of individuals who are in need of support and assistance. It’s just the way of the world, it seems – some people are very lucky while others are decidedly less so. So when we heard the stories below, our hearts were warmed and we found ourselves to be truly inspired both by the spirit of human perseverance and seemingly endless ability to have hope.

We’re sharing them with you now so that perhaps you too may be inspired to help someone in need, and make a difference to a life.

Global Medical Relief Fund: One child at a time

Kenan was 11 years old when he was playing soccer in his home country of Iraq, and unknowingly stepped on a landmine. The horrific explosion shattered his face, tore out his eye, and removed his right arm and left leg entirely. Seventeen years later, his life has changed immensely with the help of the Global Medical Relief Fund, which helps provide essential reconstructive surgery and prosthetic limbs to children who have been the victim of wartime violence. Kenan, now 28 is inspired to provide support to other children who have fallen victim to the horrible violence of war.

Global Medical Relief Fund founder Elissa Montanti was inspired to take action when she heard a child's plea for help asking for "God and all merciful people to help me getting prosthetics." Today, Elissa helps direct a network of volunteers around the world, and the organization has helped more than 100 injured children – one child at a time.

Read the entire article or watch the video.

Coach Bob Hurley: The Sage of St. Anthony

St. Anthony’s basketball team has had a long history of success under Coach Bob Hurley, having won 23 state championships and three national titles – despite the fact that the school’s facilities are far from state of the art. Housed in an old building in a rundown neighborhood in Jersey City, NJ, the small Catholic school doesn’t even have a proper gym for its students. But that fact has never stopped Coach Hurley, who has over the years has passed up lucrative jobs coaching college basketball in order to change lives of students in the inner city. Known for running the most physically intense high school basketball practices in the country, Coach Hurley has managed to inspire his players to be the best for years.

And against all odds, it seems that the schools’ excellence extends beyond sports and into the classroom: for the past 17 years, 100 % of the school’s seniors have been accepted into college – a tremendous success rate, especially considering that many of the schools’ 240 students come from families living at or below the poverty level.

Read the entire article or watch the video.